We have been living and working this farm for 9 years now. We had to sell off part of it to keep it. We both work everyday to progress our life here and create a secure place for people to live in the future. Most days it is a thankless backbreaking grind. But some days, like today, one looks up to see things in a new light. Slowly and surely we have pulled ourselves to the top of the mountain, where we can see success at last!
When we first moved here we were a little house surrounded by trees, dark and quiet. That very day the neighbor put a road in, cutting down trees and breaking the ground. The absent trees, and internal rotting, created havoc on the old growth forest and a lot of it had to be cut down to save the house. When you log your property, even selectively like we did, you are left with piles of logs and branches unsalvageable by the loggers. We were told to burn these piles, we could not. These piles have been sitting, turning grey and making homes for birds and squirrels for 5 years now. My husband pulled the the hardwoods out and built his 7 foot fence around 4 acres for our animals and birds and almost a thousand square feet of raised bed gardens.
To make a short story longer . . . we could not walk on over 50 percent of our property because of a cliff line. I had only been "up top" 3 times in 9 years. It is so steep I had to come down it on partly on my hind quarters. We get our water from a wood box in the creek up there (so we have gravity fed water) and in the summer my husband was going up there a couple of times a day to keep the filter cleaned.
But today . . . .
We feel like we scratched off paint chips to reveal the Mona Lisa. The ugly piles of wood became a valuable base for our road. Pictures from the top tomorrow, gotta love a cliff hanger!
peace for all
p.s. click the pictures to make them full size
